No ‘fortress-states’ on refugees, says Greece
EU summit chairman downbeat about prospects of deal to halt influx
GREECE is insisting that EU leaders meeting in Brussels must provide for sanctions against member states that unilaterally decide to shut out refugees. Deputy defence minister Dimitris Vitsas, who heads a task force on migration, said yesterday that Europe should not contain “fortress-states”.
Athens has repeatedly criticised fellow EU member Austria for capping the number of refugees it lets in, which had a domino effect through the Balkans and left nearly 46 000 migrants stuck in Greece.
That figure includes 14 000 living in a waterlogged tent city set up round the closed Idomeni border crossing with non-EU member Macedonia.
Greek authorities are trying to persuade people in Idomeni to move to organised shelters elsewhere, but have ruled out using violence to evacuate the camp.
Meanwhile, the EU’s summit chairman said yesterday he was “more cautious than optimistic” about the chances of reaching a deal with Turkey this week to halt the influx of refugees that is causing the divisions in Europe.
Hours before EU leaders met to try to agree on financial and political rewards to offer Turkey in return for a commitment to take back all refugees who cross from its shores to Greece, European Council president Donald Tusk sounded downbeat.
“The agreement must be acceptable to all 28 member states, no matter big or small,” he told a news conference in a clear reference to Cyprus’s objections to accelerating Turkey’s EU membership talks until Ankara fulfils past obligations.
After a year in which more than a million people have arrived in Europe in chaotic misery, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond, EU countries are looking desperately to Turkey to seal its coastline and stem the flow.
European Commission president JeanClaude Juncker, who runs the EU executive, said he was “pretty confident” of a deal by today. But Tusk forecast difficult talks, saying any agreement must fully comply with European and international law – UN agencies and rights groups have been sceptical it will do that.
In Ankara, a senior Turkish official said countries like Cyprus should not be allowed to block progress, and that Tusk’s pre-summit visit to Ankara on Tuesday had not fully resolved issues over the proposed pact.
Turkey did not intend to make new demands or proposals when Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu meets the EU leaders today, the official said, appearing to rule out any goodwill gesture to break the standoff with Cyprus.
A Cypriot spokesman said Cyprus would not retreat from its stance, which effectively demands Turkey recognise its statehood, and said any resolution would be “exclusively up to Turkey”.
A draft deal circulated by Tusk and debated by EU ambassadors on Wednesday evening watered down two important inducements to Turkey and included new safeguards intended to overcome legal objections to sending back refugees.
Ankara’s central objective – securing
FRIDAY MARCH 18 2016 visa-free travel for Turks to Europe by June – will depend on it meeting a raft of longstanding criteria.
After discussing the economy, the 28 EU national leaders were set to debate the detailed terms to offer Turkey over dinner.
Davutoglu was due to join EU leaders for breakfast today, at which Tusk hopes to finalise a deal the Turkish premier first sprang on a surprised EU with backing from German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a special summit 11 days ago.
Under the plan, Turkey would take back all those, including Syrian refugees, who cross from its shores to Greek islands. The EU would double an agreed €3 billion fund to help refugees in Turkey and would hasten visa-free travel for Turks in Europe.
The draft says the aim is “to break the business model of the (people) smugglers” and to offer refugees an alternative to putting their lives at risk. It stresses the return is “a temporary and extraordinary measure which is necessary to end the human suffering and restore public order”. – Reuters and AP